Cheetah sightings on the increase… by Dean Laubscher

Run cheetah run… Yes, its another day in the African bush and the race for survival is on. Right in front is the endangered cheetah, a beautiful cat built for speed. The Cheetah can reach a top speed of about 110 to 120 km a hour, which it uses to chase down medium sized antelope.

There numbers has declined drastically and the cheetah is considered endangered. The reason for this is because of loss of habitat and farmers persecuting them, as they are believed to take live stock to supplement their diet.

But luckily as more land is being set aside fore conservation and people’s attitude towards wild animals are changing, we see that the cheetah (the worlds fastest land mammal) is making a come back in the race for survival and there numbers is on the increase in protected areas…

In the 3 years that I have done Welgevonden big 5 game drives at Kololo it has always been hard to find cheetahs and really special when I found them, but I can say with a smile on my face that in the last year the amount of cheetah sightings that we have had has increased dramatically and that 2 of the females has cubs that has survived through the most dangerous time in there live the first 6 months.

So here is to the future of the cheetah, the spirit of safaris and amazing sightings.

Rangers and their toy's by Richard Oosthuizen

We have new toys on Kololo, two camera traps.

A Camera trap works on a motion sensor, and takes a photo every time something moves in front of the lens.

The whole idea behind the cameras is to see how many predators occur on the reserve and also to view nocturnal animals like your Leopard, Hyena, Bush pig, Civets, Genets, Jackal and your Honey badger, Serval.

But the big question will be how to get a photo on 2000 ha of land. If a Leopard catches an animal and we find the carcass we will install the camera next to the carcass on a tree and leave it there for a day or two.

With your antelope species we always put out salt on the reserve because we don’t have any natural salts on the farm, by doing that we can install the camera next to the salt.

The camera has a build in red light that switches on first but slowly then the camera will take a photo. A red light does not harm a animals eyes.

We will update the photos on Kololo web site once a week with new exciting photos we took with our camera traps.

If you look at the photo, an Eland cow died and a lot off animals had a feast. The carnivores came first for the meat that will be Leopard, Jackal, Civets, Genets, Caracal and Honey Badger and then the Bush pig and Warthog came for some maggots and after that hyenas cleaned the bones. We are still waiting for the vultures to clean up the place.

I hope you will enjoy the photos as much as we do.

Hornbill by Lomarie van Schalkwyk

On Kololo Game Reserve, we have many different species of birds, but one of the most interesting birds is the hornbill.

You can always see by the way that they fly that it is a hornbill, they go up and down like a wave, this type of flight is also known as ‘dipping flight’.

They make the funniest but most beautiful sounds.

On Kololo we have 1specie, the Grey hornbill. South Africa is home to 9 species of Hornbills.

It is fascinating how they are making their nests.

They make their nest in a tree hole, in which the female will plug out all her feathers and the male will close the hole with mud and fesses leaving only a small hole for the female to defecate and for the male to feed her and the new hatchlings.

The hatchlings legs develop very fast so that they can reach the hole to get the food out of the opening and defecate out of the nests opening.

When the strongest hatchling is big enough and ready to fly the female opens the hole and they are ready to get airborne.

I’ve rescued a hornbill from the restaurant that flew in and sat behind the dishwasher.

That is how I know they have sharp, hard bills (that can bite very hard).

Ps. Next time you walk under a tree watch out for the defecating hornbills.

Finding The Meaning of Kololo By Bok du Preez

Sunday, the 4th September, my first game drive on Kololo Game Reserve. I departed from the head office at 10:00 with two very enthusiastic, and well informed guests eager to see and learn more about our beautiful reserve. Minutes after leaving we were treated with zebra's feeding only 15 meters away from the vehicle and were further surprised with a herd of Blue Wildebeest and Impala appearing from our side.

We were all thrilled with the mornings sighting, driving along one of the foothills of the Grootfontein mountains when we stopped in awe at not one but three beautiful Klipspringers that appeared out of the rocky mountain side and gave us a nice long photo opportunity.

My guests were especially amazed to learn the name KOLOLO means Klipspringer in Sotho and because the beautiful antelope share the rocky landscape with the Rock Hyraxs they have become co-dependent by both using identical warning whistles and thus helping each other in return. This means that the predators have to work twice as hard to catch either one of the species!

After more animal sightings and some refreshing coffee and snacks in the bush we returned to the restaurant for a lovely meal and good memories.

The Smaller things in life by Bok du Preez

Working with wildlife almost all my life, I have come to realize that more often than not it is the smaller animals in life that fascinates me.

A good example would be the lesser bush baby: a few nights ago I was driving on Kololo when I saw a whole group of these furry primates jumping in the trees. I sat with my flashlight for a good 20 minutes just watching them play around. These little guys with their big eyes and long fingers are so agile and home in the trees but on solid ground it is a whole other story.

One of the Bush babies tried to jump from one side of the tree to the other side but just did not have enough momentum, the little guy hit the dirt road with such force that he took a few seconds before he realized where he was.

Shocked and discussed at his mistake, now instead of the quick and effortless movements that I saw in the trees, I was watching a clumsy and unsteady Bush baby, much like a child trying to take its first steps.

It took the Bush baby about 2 minutes to cross four meters, once at the base of the tree it was like someone had pressed the fast forward button and off he was.

I must say for such a little animal, he sure made a huge difference in my evening.

Porcupines by Richard Oosthuizen

Porcupines are the Largest African rodents and can have a body mass of up to 18 kg and an overall length of 80cm.

They are vegetarians and are capable of doing great damage to crops; they are fond of tree bark, roots and even bones.

Some questions we always have to answer: Can porcupines shoot their quills?

NO they can’t fire their quills. The quills are modified hair and cannot be fired or released when they feel like it. If you find a predator with a few quills sticking out of his body it is most likely the predator harassed the porcupine and got to close.

The next question is: How do porcupines mate?

My first answer will be ‘’very carefully’’ The female draw her tail sideways to expose her quill-free bottom surface to the male.

Crop farmers are not too happy when they find porcupines on their farm, but we at Kololo are always happy to take wild (problem Animals) away from farms and release them on kololo where they can live in peace.

The White Rhino by Dean Laubscher

As the wet season is nearing its end and the grass is at its tallest, finding animals can be quite difficult… but luckily we are doing big 5 game drives in what is possibly one of the best places to see the rare white rhino.

Standing +/- 1.8 meters tall and weighing in at 1500 to 2500 kg it is hard to miss this majestic animal. And we are lucky to see them because they were almost poached to extinction in the early 1900, and unfortunately their existence are being put in the scale again as poaching and a demand for the horn has started again… last year alone a couple of hundred was poached and if you think there is only a few thousand left that is a serious statistic. Not to mention the fact that the demand for rhino horn has increased this year…

Luckily due to the eco-tourism industry there are funds available to help protect this amazing animal.., so come on safari and know that you are helping to save this specie while you are on holiday.

We were busy tracking lions that walked along the road... it must have been difficult for them to find food because we followed their tracks for most of the morning almost 8 km. Eventually we lost the track, quite disappointing, but luckily only a hundred meters further I could see 4 White Rhinos grazing. So in the hope to raise the spirits of the group, I said ...“Well there is some rhinos in front, we can go and have a look at them”. We just stopped at the rhinos; they were about 5 meters from the road. I started talking about them and the guests were taking photos. All of a sudden behind them one of the lions stood up… proving once again all you need on safari is...luck!

A smile worth a million bucks

Those who are familiar with Welgevonden has ten to one heard or seen of a famous male lion called “Hanglip”. Now firstly the reason for this name is that quite some time ago this handsome young lion took his chances at catching a zebra, needless to say, he wasn’t very successful. Instead of catching the zebra, he managed to get his front teeth kicked out, his incisors bent and his lip is on a permanent droop (thus the name Hanglip) and I do believe his ego took quit some bruising too!

So our story starts with a normal afternoon drive in Welgevonden where we were treated with many beautiful sightings such as rhino and elephant. Nearing our last half hour of the game drive I located some very fresh male lion tracks and decided to follow them. After only a few minutes we managed to locate the owner of the tracks, and wouldn’t u believe it, it was Hanglip. He was lying very close to the car but amongst the rocks, he shortly got up and moved a few meters and started sniffing the ground at some lioness urine. Now when most male animals want to mate, they first do something called flehmen, that’s when they lick a females urine and press it against a special organ in the mouth that analysis it, in doing so they normally stand with a open mouth and a rather silly grin, so picture this deformed lion standing there with properly the worst smile ever only a few meters away from the vehicle! Myself and the guests could not help but to burst out in laughter at this sight. When the laughter died down to a giggle Hanglip gave us a quick glance (almost as if saying watch this) walked over to one of the bigger rocks, and wouldn’t you know it, a beautiful lioness came from behind it and all lovingly rubbed up against him. Shows you it’s not all about looks!

Full day Game Drive By Jasper Visser

After a cup of coffee in the restaurant, we departed for a full day drive in Welgevonden (at approx 6 am).

Today we are doing a six hour game drive and that’s why I decided to head north.

We drove down a very steep road named Jan stammetjie into the Sterkstroom valley. It was a cold morning and not much to see except a few waterbucks and kudu’s.

We drove up Eagle owl road followed by Tortoise road, both roads are known for sightings of elephant breeding herds. They often take this roads down to the Sterkstroom valley.

There were lots of tracks and signs of the elephants moving through this part of the reserve as well as fresh tracks and signs of a buffalo bull walking up this road not long before us..

As we arrived on the top of Tortoise road we encountered the western pride of lions. They were laying on a open patch of grass with the cubs playing, climbing on a tree stump and jumping on to one of the sub-adult males, BEAUTIFUL !

What a sighting, most of us were enjoying the sighting so much that we forgot to take pictures. I wanted to stop at a dam called Rhino dam, but then we encountered a small breeding herd consisting of 9 elephants standing on the other side of the dam drinking water.

We enjoyed the sighting and drove down to the next dam named Leopard dam for a delicious breakfast.

After breakfast we drove back on the outback road on the southern side of the reserve overlooking the land that was integrated by Kololo, into Welgevonden recently.

When we arrived back in the South we encountered some white rhino resting under a tree in the shade, What a great morning in the bush!

Scorpion by Lomarie van Schalkwyk

In South Africa there are 130 different species of scorpions, some venomous and some not so venomous. On Kololo the scorpions are getting more and more active due to the heat. Today there was a Hadogenes Scorpion in the laundry room, more commonly known as a rock scorpions. They are extremely flat with a very thin tail and large pinchers they only have a small stinger on the end of their tail. They are one of the none venomous scorpions

How do you now if it is venomous?If it has a small stinger and lager pedipals then it is a non venomous scorpion. It uses its pedipals to catch it’s pray so they do not need to have so much venom. If it has a large stinger and small pedipals you have to watch out it uses it stinger to catch it’s pray so it needs and uses a lot of venom. The rock scorpions are well adapted to life in rock environments their bodies are flat and legs are compressed to allow them to creep into narrow cracks. They can walk up side down on rocks and their feet are adapted so that they can cling to the rocks. All scorpions are carnivores they love to eat millipedes and crickets.

The one we caught today we are going to release on the farm near some rock vegetation where it will thrive.

The Fast and The Curious by Bok du Preez

Those who know me know that I absolutely love cheetahs. I was very thrilled and excited on a recent game drive to have not one but two sightings of these beautiful creatures. The first was a young male who managed to catch a baby zebra and eat it about 30 meters away from the vehicle. It was quite funny to see this slender athlete nearly roll away after completely stuffing himself with as much meat as his little stomach could take. He would stop eating, uncomfortably sit up and gasp for air, then fall down and lazily eat again. As nice a sighting as this was it wasn’t nearly as special as what happened only an hour later when we were surprized by a mother cheetah and her two cubs walking only 5 meters past the car. The mother was completely focused on an impala standing in the distance, whilst her cubs decided to lie down in the middle of the road, right in front of us. These youngsters were quite intrigued with the car and the strange clicking sounds (cameras going off at full speed!) that came from it. They moved off into the long grass next to the vehicle, but every few seconds one of them would just quickly poke his head out of the grass and look at us in a strange way and then move off again, this was going on for quite some time until a shrill call from the mother signalled them to move off again. Fortunately in this occasion curiosity did not kill the cat.

A Giant Sighting by Jasper Visser

A little while ago I did a full day game drive with the photo group of Rien wellman. We left very early because the photo group wanted to take picture of the sunrise in Welgevonden. We left the tented camp at 4 o’clock and of we went to the south gate of Welgevonden and my plan was to drive up low range pass, a beautiful viewing point with a view over the stunning southern plains of Welgevonden.

When we arrived at Lowrange pass it was only 10 minutes until sunrise. We had a beautiful beginning of the day and headed north where we encountered the western pride consisting of 9 lions. After that great sighting we stopped for coffee and breakfast and the temperature was rising fast so I decided to drive past one of the waterholes where I know the elephants and buffalo’s like to take a cooling down swim. And I was right, from a far distance we could hear the elephant trumpeting and when we arrived at Sterkstroom pan this is what we encountered… A breeding herd of 16 elephants playing in and around the waterhole and some of these giants totally disappearing under water from time to time…. Unbelievable.

New Born by Richard Oosthuizen

Every year we are privileged to be on Kololo when the new born arrive. From the middle of November to the end of February all the animals on Kololo give birth to tiny little baby’s. Matting season is in the middle of winter that means that the females are pregnant during the dry season. We provide the animals with salt, leak blocks and some Luzern grass for extra feed during the winter months to insure healthy females when they start giving birth.

The Zebra’s and the Blesbuck are first in the middle of November. The blesbuck babies are completely white and become darker when they become older, the little Zebra’s look the same as the mother except the brown hair covering the body but it disappears when they become alder. The Eland and waterbuck follows and then in December all the little Impala’s, Blue Wildebeest and Warthog appears.

But one of the most beautiful babies is the Kudu’s, The gestation period is +/- 210 days before a single baby is born, but you will only start seeing them in January because the females hide them away in the thickets till they big enough. This can be for up to four weeks before the young come out to join the herd.

When you stay in the bush this is the reason why you are here, it is not about seeing the big five every day it is about the bigger pitcher LIVE.

My Big 5 Game Drive By Jasper Visser

After a nice cup of coffee in the restaurant, we departed for a big 5 game drive into Welgevonden, we alwaysenter the reserve throw the South gate. While filling in the indemnity forms, we suddenly heard a very loud and impressive lion roar, we knew they hippowere close but looking at the facts that you can hear a lion roar in an 8 km radius you never know exactly how close they might be. Full of excitement we drove around low range pass and there they were, the whole southern pride consisting of one big male, 2 sub adult males, 2 females and 5 cubs lying in the road in front of us! It was like being in a movie on national geographic, the 5 cubs playing with each other in front of the car while you could see the sun rising in the background, Unbelievable!

After watching the southern pride for about 15 minutes we left the lions and headed off to the other side of the mountain. We encountering all kinds of antelopes like waterbuck, red hartebeests and a beautiful dark kudu bull with his elegant set of horns. As we approached one of the dams for a coffee break we encountered 2 beautiful hippos next to the road, we viewed them for a while and decided it is time for a nice breakfast.